1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical card connector, and particularly to an electrical card connector having a reliable blocking spring finger for preventing an undesired card from inserting into the card connector.
2. Description of Related Art
CardBus, the 32-bit high performance mastering architecture for PC card, was standardized by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) in May 1996, the homepage of which is http://www.pcmcia.org/. It was conceived as a means to add high bandwidth capabilities to the PC Card technology and to match the system performance achieved by today""s PCI bus-based mobile computers. The CardBus connected to a printed circuit board is through a CardBus connector, which is designed and manufactured according to the standard of the CardBus. Basically, a conventional card connector usually includes a housing with a plurality of terminals received therein, a shell enclosing the housing and an ejector. The related arts can be found in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2001/0046799A and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,369,259, 6,129,571, 6,056,566 and 6,039,587. However, a mobile computer usually has a CardBus as well as a smart card which is thinner than the CardBus. The mobile computer provides a CardBus connector and a smart card connector to respectively accommodating the CardBus and the smart card. Possibly, a smart card may be incorrectly inserted into a conventional CardBus connector since the smart card is thinner than the CardBus, thereby damaging the smart card or the CardBus connector. So, it is desired to provide a CardBus connector having means for blocking a smart card from inserting into the CardBus connector.
Hence, an improved CardBus connector is required. It is noted that U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,516 with the same assignee as the invention, discloses an approach to prevent the desired card from being misoriented into the connector. Somewhat differently, the instant invention is to provide the anti-mismating device for blocking the undesired different (thickness) cards.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an electrical card connector having a blocking means for protecting the electrical card connector from damages by an insertion of an electrical card which is not designed to be used with the electrical connector.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical card connector in accordance with the present invention includes a dielectric housing with a plurality of terminals arranged therein, a conductive shell covering the dielectric housing, an ejector device and a grounding plate for grounding purpose. The conductive shell comprises a cover plate and a pair of side plates extending vertically from opposite lateral edges of the cover plate. One of the two side plates provides a generally V-shaped spring finger that is stamped therefrom and thereby defining an opening therein. The V-shaped spring finger extends firstly inwards into a chamber for receiving an inserting card and then extends outwards until the one of side plates. The spring finger comprises a base portion connected with a forward edge of the opening, a triangular free end portion, and an intermediate portion connecting the base portion and the free end portion. The intermediate portion defines a pair of stop protrusions oppositely beside the free end portion and confronting an inserting direction of the inserting card for preventing a wrongly inserted undesired card from inserting into the electrical card connector.